PATARA-TARA SA SELEBRA

Ni Dr. Jazmin B. Llana
para sa librong Selebra 

Buhay an taramon na Bikol. Lambang Bikolano mapatotoo kaini. Sa harampangan kan mga magturugang, sa kararawan kan mga kaakian, sa mahimbong na iribahan kan mga mag-agom buda mga nagkakaminootan, sa iristorya kan mga lolo/lola buda mga makuapo ninda, sa tiripon kan mga lalaki man o babayi, bakla o tomboy, gurang o aki, sa mga harong, mga tinampo, uma, bukid, sapa, dagat, sa mga oficina, mga iskwelahan, magsaen man sa ronang Bikol o duman sa mga harayong lugar kun saen may mga Bikolanong balon sa paglakaw an mahamis na sadiring taramon. Sa pangadie man, sa pagkaminootan, pag-ogma, magin sa pag-iriwal, pagtarapukan ki malanit na mga pagtaram, pag-agrangay sa kasakitan, pagmundo, pagraway—gabos na pitik, gios, giay-giay, tabyon, ulakbo na minapamate na ini naghahangos, may bagsik, marigon, siring na kita man buhay, nagtatalubo, naggugurang hale sa kasuanuyan pasiring sa dai masagkudan na aabotan. Buhay, nagtatalubo, alagad garu lapwas sa panahon o dai nadudu’tan kan panahon buda historya, ta ini nagdadanay.

Ini an makusog na pagmateng matubo sa halanuhan, magigin magabat na pagkasabot sa daghan, maribabaw sa talinga, maburak sa ngimot kan siisay man na mabasa kan mga rawit-dawit ni Raffi Banzuela sa katiripunan na ini. Sarong matibay na patotoo kan titulong Selebra―pag-ogma, pagpiyesta, pagranga, pagrokyaw! Ta ki Raffi igwang nahahaman na bagong pandok, bagong tanog, kan pagsurat sa Bikol. Daing kaarog an gamit kan Albay-Bikol, nagraragisnis, garu masulog na salog an tabyon kan mga taramon, nagdudukot sa kublit an hapihap, nagsisiwik sa tikab, pigpipiltik an sintido kan nagkakadangog o nakakabasa.

Naoogma ako ta si Raffi nagsurat na sa Bikol pakatapos kaidtong enot na Pagsurat Bikolnon kan taon dos mil, saro sa mga enot na pinunan kan Sentrong Pangkultura buda Arte kan Unibersidad kan Aquinas. Sigurado akong haloy nang igwang laad nin pagmawot si Raffi para sa pagsurat sa Bikol, alagad an tanda ko garu pesemistiko siyang maray kaidto. Pano mananggad magsurat sa Bikol kun dai ngani nagkakasarabutan manungod sa spelling o grammar kan taramon, buda padagos na pighahapot kun anong Bikol an gagamiton sa pagsurat? (Dai ko pigsasabing bako importante ini kundi na dai kita magpapugol sa mga arog kaining kadaehan. Tibaad ngani dai man kaipuhan masimbag ngunyan an mga siring na hapot.) An mga naenot na mga nagtulod kan pag-Bikol nagderebateng biyo manungod kan mga bagay na ini, abot sa matambonan na sana an mga argumento sa pag-agi kan panahon, lalo na ta an gobyerno buda mga eskuwelahan dai man ki pagmangno kaini, ta an pagtubod kaipuhan makaukod ki Ingles o Filipino, ta an Bikol vernacular sana, bakong angay sa mga seryosong hororon o sa pagsurat. Kun igwa man ki nagtaong halaga, panahon, buda rekurso, mga dayo pa katabang an nagkakapira sanang Bikolano. Kan magtipon an mga parasurat na Bikolano kan taon mil dos, nagkaraba an laad kan pagmawot, ta kan magpoon magsurat sa Bikol si Raffi, dai na niya tinonongan. Gari bagyong ogis sa saiyang istorya sa Albay Viejo (2010).

Bako saro sana an Bikol. Dakul ini. Diit an mga isinurat na sa man-iba-ibang Bikol: Albayano, Tabaqueño, Miraya, Sorsoganon, Gubatnon, Masbateño, Catandungan, Rinconada-Iriga, Baaoeño, Oasnon, buda kadakul pang manlaenlaen na Bikol, alagad yaon digdi sa kadakulan an yaman kan lengguwahe. Pwedeng sabihon na kadaklan kaini oral mananggad, dai pigsusurat. Habo ko nang magparakalkal pa kan nakaagi o magsusog sa dai aram na kapinunan buda magtaram na kan suanoy na panahon igwa kitang sadiring baybayin o alibata buda an satong mga apoon nagsusurat sa gapo, sa dahon o sa mga ubak nin kahoy. Aram ta na ini. An taramon an mismong testamento. An kaipuhan mahiling iyo an ngunyan, o an satong nagimatan—na dai nang mga nakasurat sa mga tataramon na ini o kun igwa man dai ta aram kun haraen iyan. Kadaklan kan mga nakasurat yaon sa taramon kan sentro, kan simbahan, kan banwa. Kaya igwang “Standard Bikol” ta igwang mga sinurat sa taramon na ini na iyong ginamit kan mga prayleng Kastila sa pagsakop ninda sa Kabikolan sa paagi kan pagpalakop kan pagtubod na Katoliko: mga nobena, mga pangadie na pig-imprenta buda pigtatakan nin imprimatur kan mga dayong nagin Obispo sa Caceres. An mga secular na pagsurat nagdakul man, gamit an Bikol na Bikol kan simbahan. Alagad iyan an mga nakasurat. Sa pagtaram nagdanay an iba-ibang Bikol, dai nagadan. Ngunyan, sa paghingoha kan mga igwang pagmakulog sa taramon buda pagsurat Bikolnon, nagkaigwang bagong lawas an mga taramon, bako na sana pigtataram, pigsusurat na man o pigsusurat na giraray.

An pagsurat Bikolnon pwedeng sabihon na produkto kan mga inagihan tang historya bilang banwa o mga banwa sa ronang ini kan Pilipinas. Halimbawa an pagsurat ki rawit-dawit sa paliwanag ni Raffi digdi sa libro (“Ining Pagrawit-dawit”): dakul nang pighalean, damot na an pigkukuwaan na tradisyon o mga paagi buda agi-agi nin pagsurat. Dai na maghapot kun ñgata may sonnet, villanelle, blank verse, couplet buda dakul pang klase ki pagrawit-dawit na ginamit si Raffi sa koleksyon na ini. Dai na magngalas kun ñgata nasasambit an mga pangaran nara Shakespeare, Coleridge, Keats, Yeats, Plato, Aristotle buda iba pang personalidad sa literatura kan ibang nasyon. Anas na sinda kaiba, kasalak sa nagimatan tang katiripunan nin pagsurat nin pig-aapod na literature, nin verso o prosa, nin rawitdawit o fiction o drama. Burubaliktadon ta man, paturutumbahon pa, kita mga aki kan satong inagihan na istorya buda historya, an pagsaralak nin mga tradisyon, mga lente nin paghiling sa agi-agi kan panahon, mga inisip, ginibo, pighona na nabasa o naadalan ta, mga “structures of feeling” katakod kan buhay man o kagadanan, kamunduan, agrangay, o kaogmahan. Dai kaini napapara an padagos na gibo o proseso nin pagigin Bikolano, an danay na taramon an nagbabago, nagtatalubo, alagad dai nagagadan sa dila buda imahinasyon kan mga tawo. Totoong igwang mga madudugong inagihan an istoryang ini, alagad bako an kolonisasyon kan imahinasyon. Igwang paagi an mga tawo, lalo na an mga daing sukat, kun pano makatalingkas sa arog kaining katibaadan. Igwang mamundong mga katapusan/katahawan kan istorya, alagad sarong makusog na patotoo kan katalingkasan an danay na taramon, magsaen man sa ronang Bikol. An maraot sana, na padagos an pagpapasagilid kan pagsurat Bikolnon, na warang espasyo para sa pag-adal Bikolnon sa dakul na mga universidad, na kaipuhan pang ipirit an pagtukdo nin Bikol o manongod sa Bikol sa mga iskwelahan.

Mabasa man lugod nin dakul na Bikolano an gibong ini ni Raffi nganing matikbahan an saindang boot buda maengganyo na magselebra kan padagos na pagigin (becoming) Bikolnon buda pagsurat sa Bikol. Sa ibang aldaw, tibaad magkaigwang rekurso para sa pagsurat sa ibang lengguwaheng kan mga rawit-dawit digdi sa koleksyon buda pag-imprenta kan libro nganing makalakop man sa bakong mga Bikolano an mga gibong ini na totoong lapwas sa saindang panahon buda lugar, sa arin man na panahon o espasyo, igwang kabatiran na dara, igwang katotoohan na minatadom sa pagmate, lapwas sa lawas, minapukaw sa lagalag na kalag.

Mabuhay ka Raffi, buda an saimong pagsurat!



                                Jazmin Badong Llana, Ph.D.
                                9 Nobyembre 2010


[SELEBRA (Antolohiya ki mga rawit-dawit na nadamot sa laog ki duwang dekada), Raffi Banzuela, Legazpi City, Elton Press, 2011)]

A LECTURE ON GAT JOSE RIZAL I NEVER GOT TO DELIVER

RIZAL DAY
JUNE 19, 2011
GUINOBATAN


FRIENDS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN


I am happy to be here and celebrate with you the 150th birth anniversary of our national hero, the pride of the Malayan race, Dr. Jose Rizal.

I understand that PROF. . . . is the one responsible for bringing me here. Thank you, Sir. 

Well, I hope that you have been told that Guinobatan is a beautiful place, lush, green, and fertile. Guinobatan is historical too. For instance, it was here that Fray Bernardino de Melendreras de la Trinidad wrote many of his poems including his version of The Ibalong Epic and the least publicized “Traduccion del romance Bicol de la Erupcion del Mayong, volcan de Albay, que on Indio, testigo ocular, compuso y canto a las pueblos de su circumscripcion muchos años.” This is about the 1814 Mayon eruption. The details are so graphic, I have not read anything like that. I translated it to Bikol. It was also here in Guinobatan where the anthropologist Fedor Jagor stayed when he studied the Bikolnong and the Kabikolan. He stayed with his friend Fray Bernardino de Melendreras. 

It was here in Guinobatan where the first normal school for males, of the first class, was established by the Franciscan missionaries even when the revolution was about to flare up. It was the Colegio de San Buenaventura, set up in the area of the St. Benedict’s Academy. Unfortunately, there is even no marker in the place. General Simeon Arboleda Ola was a native of Guinobatan. He was the last Filipino general to surrender to the invading American forces. I feel sad when I hear comments that General Ola did nothing but hide in a cave. That is baseless and derogatory. The Americans were very superior in armaments while Ola had troops who were not only poorly equipped but also starving and sick and dying. As a leader, Ola did the right thing: save his troops from annihilation. And why were the Americans after Ola? Because Ola did everything to disrupt the abaca industry which was a primary reason why the Americans invaded Albay. Ola was a hero in more ways than one.

Let’s go to Dr. Jose Rizal. We can talk about Guinobatan some other day.

Talking about somebody who is very popular is a difficult task. It is easier to find fault with him or her.

GAT JOSE RIZAL, MASTER MASON. A photo of the national
hero rarely seen by ordinary citizens. (Correas Filipinas)

I looked for accounts on whether Jose Rizal or any of his sisters ever set foot in Guinobatan. I found one story of a sister going to Legazpi but not Guinobatan.

It is hard to locate a Filipino who does not know Dr. Jose Rizal, Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda. He was born this day in 1861 in Calamba, Laguna. He was the seventh in a brood of eleven, two boys and nine girls. He traveled throughout Europe, America, and Asia.

What many, perhaps, are not aware of is that the color of his skin was moreno, kayumangging lumala-gatak, just like us. He was not tall, he hardly reached five feet. The size of his head was bigger than the ordinary. Because of his big head, he developed an inferiority complex which he overcame by honing up many of his talents.

We know that Rizal was a genius. He spoke Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Malayan, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, and Tagalog. He was not only an ophthalmic surgeon but also an architect, artist, businessman, educator, economist, historian, inventor, musician, mythologist, novelist, psychologist, scientist, cartoonist, ethnologist, scientific farmer, journalist, linguist, nationalist, naturalist, poet, propagandist, sculptor, sociologist, and theologian.

Rizal owes much of his person from his father, Francisco Rizal Mercado, who was a hard working farmer in Biñan, Laguna and his personality from his mother, Teodora Alonso Realonda y Quinto who was a wide reader and who knew many things. Rizal learned the alphabet at age three from his mother. Rizal said that his mother was very loving and very smart. This must be a lesson for our modern mothers who cannot find time for their children. They may be missing another Rizal in the making.

If the surname of his father is Mercado and his middle name is Rizal, how come Jose used Rizal instead of Mercado? The story goes this way: On the eve of Rizal’s departure for Manila to attend school, he saw his mother being dragged to prison. When he reached Manila, he learned that the Spaniards killed Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora. Father Burgos was a good friend of his elder brother, Paciano. The execution of the three Filipino priests generated suspicion and fear that those who knew or were related or were friends of the priests will be harassed by the Spaniards or they would even be made to suffer the fate of the three priests. Knowing that Paciano was a friend of Father Burgos, Jose came to think about what may happen to him too. Paciano used the surname Mercado. Jose decided to use the middle name of his father, Rizal. Rizal means “greenfield” or “new pasture.” When Filipino surnames were Hispanized, his father chose Mercado, which means “market” thinking it as appropriate for their farming family.

SMILING HERO. Another rare photo with Gat Jose Rizal smiling, second from left, standing. (Correas Filipinas)

Rizal also had weaknesses. He had a liking for beautiful girls and for games of chance. In fact, he became a very popular winner in a game of lotto in Dapitan. He shared a winning of P6,200 out of P18,000 with a Spaniard and with Don Ricardo Carnisero, a captain in Dapitan. Rizal used P4,000 of his winnings to buy a lot, erect a hospital and a school.

What then makes Rizal different from millions of Filipinos, then and now?

One of Rizal’s greatest qualities was his unequivocal love for his native land and for fellow Filipinos. He had been to free, lovely, prosperous, and developed nations yet he always preferred to return to his own rural, oppressed, poverty-stricken native land.

It was his love of country, the native land, and the land of birth that defined his personality. 

When he first went to Spain on May 3, 1882, he wrote in his diary that the land of his birth was the seat of all his affection and that he loved it that no matter how beautiful Europe would be, he would still like to go back to the Philippines.

ALSO SMILING HERE. Gat Jose Rizal is at left. (Correas Filipinas)

In his essay El Amor Patrio (Love of Country), Rizal wrote that his deep fondness for his land of birth is a “very natural feeling because there in our country are our first memories of childhood, a merry ode, known only in childhood, from whose traces spring forth the flower of innocence and happiness; because there slumbers a whole past and a future can be hoped.”

In other words, the land of our birth is the hallowed sanctuary of our memories, it is the shrine of our pride as a people, it is the heart of our dreams and aspirations as persons. Lose it and we lose ourselves.

Rizal’s sense of nationalism appears to heighten with distance. He would call his homesickness as  “profound loneliness.”

But how can we love a country that wallows in poverty, in misery, in crime, in corruption, in pretensions? How can we identify with a people who have no faith in themselves?

During Rizal’s time, the Filipinos were terribly battered and were reeling under unrelenting abuses and injustices in the hands of both the friars and those in the civil government. The people were not only living in poverty and misery but also denied of the benefits of citizenship. They were slaves in their own land. The Indios were treated like beasts of burden and machines. And they wanted freedom, dignity, self-respect, and respect by others. 

Rizal also wanted freedom, dignity, self-respect, and respect by others for the Filipinos. In The Indolence of the Filipinos, Rizal wrote that “Man is not a brute, he is not a machine . . .xxx. . . his object is to seek happiness for himself and his fellowmen by following the road towards progress and perfection.”

Rizal was passionate about political and social reform. He wanted education for his people. He wrote caustic criticisms on the Spanish rule. This led to his most famous work in 1887, the Noli Me Tangere—a novel that exposed the arrogance and despotism of Spain and her clergy. Noli me tangere is Latin for “touch me not,” an allusion to the Gospel of St. John where Jesus says to Mary Magdalene: “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.”

Noli Me Tangere exposed matters so delicate that they could not be touched by anybody. Rizal touched them.

In 1891 Rizal followed up the Noli with El Filibusterismo. El Filibusterismo dealt with a more controversial aspect with revolutionary and tragic underlying content. With El Filibusterismo, Rizal was a marked man by the Spanish authorities. He had kindled a flame of freedom to rally a cause. He became implicated in revolutionary movements.

Rizal yearned to go home but it was now very risky for him to come. It meant death to his family and loved ones. He had to work for his cause from Europe, far away from home.

In Madrid, Spain the Filipino expatriates were squabbling to enhance or protect their personal interests. There was a group that wanted Rizal to be the Filipino leader. And another wanted Marcelo H. del Pilar. The friends of del Pilar started to print articles attacking Rizal. Rizal resolved to take himself out of the picture at once. He wrote del Pilar that “I wish to be sure that I may never be regarded as a stumbling block to anybody, even though this involves my own fall.” It became a fixed principle of Rizal to resolve the clash of conflicting ambitions by sacrificing himself.

Consequently, he lost faith in the power of any of the Filipino in Spain to do effective service for the Philippines. He wrote that “ . . .If it had not been for the fact that I did not wish to shorten the lives of my parents, I would have returned to the Philippines. . . .There is where we ought to aid one another, there is where we ought to suffer together and possibly triumph.”

Rizal also learned that his name was being used by Filipinos in Madrid to raise money which they wasted and misappropriated. They also kicked Graciano Lopez Jaena out of the editorship of La Solidaridad. Jaena was left in poverty. Jaena wrote Rizal urging him to help bring about the “downfall of these little patriots who exploit patriotism for their own profit. . . . We should swear to prevent, by every means, the triumph of these false apostles of the salvation of the Philippines.

In agony, Rizal left Europe and sailed to Hong Kong carrying with him 800 copies of his new novel, El Filibusterismo. Rizal seemed to harbor boundless love for fellow Filipinos, wicked or otherwise. He did not lift a finger against his countrymen in Madrid but he could not rest so long as he was entangled with any affair which was in the slightest degree questionable. He would rather go away, far from them.

From Hong Kong he kept sending copies of El Filibusterismo to the Philippines through ship captains and Chinese traders. But Governor General Despujol hated the book. He ordered all those in possession of a copy to burn them. El Filibusterismo became a rare copy soon after it was published.

In Hong Kong, Rizal learned that his brother and sisters and their families were being harassed by the Spanish authorities. Many of his townmates were being exiled to Jolo. His heart bled.

When his fight for reforms seemed lost, Rizal thought of establishing a Filipino colony in Borneo. He would take his relatives there and the three hundred families dispossessed in Calamba. Rizal took a steamer from Hong Kong to Borneo. The British governor of that island conceded the Filipinos 100,000 acres of land, a beautiful harbor, and a good government for 999 years, free of all charges. From there he sent a postcard to Graciano Lopez Jaena in Barcelona, Spain. Jaena wrote Rizal congratulating him for the idea of founding a country of Filipinos. He told Rizal that it could be a base from which the “redemption of our Archipelago” could be done. He said, “ . . . have a piece of land ready for me there, where I can plant sugar cane.”

Other friends of Rizal in Europe were equally excited and could hardly wait to join the expedition.

But Rizal’s brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo, did not like the Borneo idea. He wrote Rizal that, “This idea about Borneo is no good. Can’t we stay in the Philippines, in this lovely country of ours? And besides, what will people say? Why have we made all these sacrifices? Why should we go to a foreign land until we have first exhausted all of our efforts for the welfare of the country which nurtured us from our cradles? Tell me that!”

Was Rizal’s brother-in-law right after all?

Perhaps, Rizal had to accept death to make the Philippines safe for his relatives rather than take them to another country.

At this juncture, couldn’t we glean some parallelism between Jose Rizal and Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.?

Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. wanted to go back to the Philippines from exile in America even under the certitude of death in the hands of the Marcoses because he thought his death could liberate the country from the stranglehold of the Marcos dictatorship. Jose Rizal thought of going home under pain of death because his death could liberate his loved ones from the arbitrary, capricious, vengeful abuses and injustice of the Spanish authorities.

Would Rizal take up arms? Would he join Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan which was getting stronger every day?

At this period of his life, Rizal was getting convinced that no justice can be expected. It was then that he received a letter from his friend Fernando Blumentritt. Blumentritt’s letter read:

"I urge you not to become involved in revolutionary agitations. He who enters a revolution ought to be able to have at least the probability of success, if he does not wish to charge his conscience with the shedding of useless blood. Always it has proven true that when a country rose against another which dominated her, a colony against the mother country, the revolution has failed to triumph by its own strength. The American Union became free because France, Spain, and Holland joined her. The Spanish Republics [led by Simón Bolivar and others all Latin American Republics, save Cuba and Puerto Rico had declared their independence from Spain by 1825] achieved their liberty because there was a civil war in the home country [Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1808] and because North America distributed arms and money to them. The Greeks attained their freedom [from the Ottoman Empire] because the English, French, and Russians aided them. . . If today an insurrection is undertaken in the Philippines, it will end in tragedy, because of your situation in the Islands; standing alone and without a navy there is no probability of your success. Besides the insurgents do not have ammunition for more than five months. I may add that there are too many among the Filipinos who believe in the Friars. A revolution will only give glory to the dead and increase the oppression of the tyrants." 

Rizal agreed with Blumentritt that insurrection promised only suicide to the Filipinos.

At this juncture, we can say that Rizal possessed yet another virtue: that of being able to intently listen. He knew how to listen to the pulse of the land, he listened to the people around him, and he listened with the ears of his heart and better judgment.

Over a hundred years after Rizal’s death, it seems that we Filipinos are still pretty much in the same spot. Nothing dramatic has changed. What we are experiencing now are melodramatic, show biz events. We are still a colony under a presumably democratic government that is steeped in doublespeak; under colonizers who claim to be Filipinos but who in reality remain to be reincarnations of the oppressors in the past. We remain to be a people still wallowing in poverty, in misery, in injustice, in abuses, in shame. We remain yearning for dignity, self-respect, prosperity, and pride. 

But could it be that we are leaving everything to persons like Rizal and freeing our individual selves of any responsibility? Had Rizal failed to make it clear that each one of us also have responsibilities?

Or, could it be that the ideals of Rizal are not being taught the way it should be? In 1956 the late Cardinal Rufino J. Santos, D.D., Archbishop of Manila, issued a statement opposing the reading by the youth of the novels by Rizal free of any censorship. He wanted a watered down version of Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo to be used in the schools. The Cardinal wrote: “We cannot permit the eternal salvation of immortal souls, souls for which We are answerable before the throne of Divine Justice, to be compromised for the sake of any human good, no matter how great it may appear.”

And today our bishops think of excommunicating even the president of the republic for thinking about how poverty can be solved even by taking radical measures. Is that saving a soul? But the bishops would not lift even their pinkish little fingers to tell a president to put an end to corruption and crime because it is not the way a Catholic nation should be governed.  

Did Rizal die in vain? Well, we are celebrating his birth anniversary. We can talk about his death in December.

Mabalos saindo gabos.

Raffi Banzuela

Nota Bene:

References used are in my files (hard copy).

BIKOL IN THE GALLEON TIMES

In the late ‘80s, I had my first trip to Mandaon, Masbate. Along the way, we crossed about a dozen bridges without water under. In Mandaon, I saw hillocks and vast grasslands, with the trees growing on them I can almost count with my fingers—as far as I can see. I asked around why there are very few trees. One answer I got was that: When the Americans constructed the railway system for what would become the Philippine National Railways (PNR) today, they got the lumber for their traviesa (railway ties) from Mandaon. When there was nothing more to cut, they went to Samar. If there are a dozen or so dehydrated river beds then at some other time water could have profusely gurgled on them. It is tempting to imagine how green and lush this place was in its pristine past.

When I started surveying the Manila Galleons, my thoughts wandered back to Mandaon. I asked myself: Did not the Spaniards start it all and the Americans finish it off? There was an astillero (shipyard) in Mobo, Masbate and just across Ticao Island there was a bigger one in Bagatao, Magallanes, Sorsogon. Those astilleros, plus two others  at the western coasts of the Bikol mainland, built and repaired Spanish vessels, from the largest galleons to the smallest kasko (canoe) used for naval campaigns and exploration of the islands. Therefore there would be an exigent need for lumber fit for building seaworthy sea crafts. Mandaon was then a luxuriant forest that yielded excellent kinds of hard wood, the kinds that can withstand punitory thrashing in the high seas and, much later, the strenuous drubbing of railway tracks.

Bikol In The Galleon Times is an attempt to look at what happened in the Bikol Region and with the early Bikolanos particularly in places where there were astilleros at the time when, what used to be Ibalon, became the center of frenzied galleon building; at a time when the Dutch menacingly challenged the Spanish naval supremacy in South East Asia.

The engineering involved in building and in sailing the galleons was not discussed here. I peremptorily touched on the commerce that went with the Galleon Trade. I scratched the surface of the politics in the Galleon Trade. This monograph is limited to the information helpful towards the understanding that Bikol and the Bikolanos played a crucial role in the times of the Galleon—when Spain needed those ships most.

I do not carry any whiff of pretension to being a historian for I am but a student of Bikol culture and history. There is so much in our past, as Bikolanos, crying out to be brought to light by Bikolanos ourselves. Juan Alvarez Guerra, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, Norman G. Owen, Malcolm Mintz, Jason Lobel, Westerners all, have been most helpful towards understanding ourselves. But I shrink in anxiety that we have to wait for those guys from across the oceans to tell us what we were, who we were, what we did, what and how we can be. Novelist Stephen King has opened the doors to alternative history. Let us tell our own stories. It can be done. It must be done. 

Thus, I ventured to ask why Bikol and the Bikolanos appear to be insignificant footnotes in that historical period when Spain was able to instill fear in her rivals, and more importantly, she was able to maintain her domination of the high seas for over three centuries. Weren’t the fastest, biggest, grandest, costliest, cannon ball-resistant, and most celebrated galleons built in the Bikol Region using native skills and materials that helped bring full circle the Spanish shipbuilding technology at that period of history?

The study of Bikol and the early Bikolanos and the Manila Galleons is a complex circumstance. The data concerning the study are really hard to come by, almost as “extinct” as the galleons themselves. I had to cope with whatever locally available exiguous documents which are mostly written in Spanish, to boot. Besides, a researcher needs efficient connections and adequate funding to be able to dig up documents stacked in some archives or museums across oceans. Memory has also escaped the people in communities where once upon a time the construction of a Manila Galleon ruled lives, dreams, and futures. We have allowed the winds to blow our own stories beyond our reach.

Relics of the astilleros in Kabikolan failed to survive time and native insouciance. Even oral literature or oral tradition or testimony or oral history or plain orality seem to have forgotten the spell and the fascination that once-upon-a-time stories could beget.

Nevertheless—from here and there, anywhere and everywhere nearby—Bikol in the Galleon Times had to be done hoping that it may be able to open more windows to the past and perchance make out images if not colorful and blithe pictures out of the vast gray. The breadth of this monograph was hedged by available personal resour-ces, mainly financial, but the enthusiasm to dig deeper into the Bikolano contribution to the Galleon Trade as well as its impact on the Bikolano psyche is not a hauled up sail.

I hope that Bikolanos will learn, understand, and appreciate whatever little Bikol in the Galleon Times can share. It will be spiritually and culturally refreshing if more studies on this subject will be undertaken by Bikolano writers, scholars, and historians. This chapter of the Manila Galleon history, more particularly Bikol history, is scandalously understudied. It seems that whenever we wish to know who we were, who we are, where we are, where we will be, we turn to our conquerors for answers and validation. It seems that our subjugation persists well into these modern times because we allow it to eventuate, unwittingly or indifferently may be.

And by way of note, I spell Bikol and other indigenous words with a k but I observe the spelling of similar words as used in official documents. This is consistent with my advocacy of promoting Albay-Bikol to be able to vigorously contribute to the development of a comprehensive Bikol-Bikol embracing all languages in the region to foster clearer communication and appreciation among us, Bikolanos.

                                                               Raffi Banzuela
                                                               Kabang’an, Kamalig, Albay
                                                               November 30, 2011

INING PAGRAWIT-DAWIT

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.

                                                                                    -T. S. Eliot
                                                                                Tradition and the Individual Talent
                                                                                (1917)


       Ano an rawit-dawit?
       Ñgata may rawit-dawit?
       Pâno an pagrawit-dawit?
       Siisay an pararawit-dawit?

Mga hapot na magianon itapok alagad an mga simbag mga magabat, matanglayon poroton.  An mga simbag nangangapodan ki hararom na pagkasabot. Sa pagtalubu kan sibilisasyon kasabay na an mga hapot na ini, sagkod ngonyan an mga hapot, hapot man gilayon. 

Dakulon na an nagbalong magtao ki simbag alagad an sararong pag-aku dai mapogol na paros. Nanggad, an rawit-dawit gayod gari paros. An paros kun makakapotan bako na paros. An sarong katotoohan iyo na an mga kaipohan magiromdoman ikinurit baga sa mga rawit-dawit: poon sa pagpoon sundo sa puwedeng maging kataposan kan kinaban. Basaha an Banal na Libro. Agihi man si Nostradamus. Kun ano an tawo buda an saiyang kapalibotan dangan kun ñgata piggigibo niya an saiyang piggigibo, basaha man sara Aristotle, Chaucer, Milton, Alighieri, Shakespeare . . . si T. S. Elliot, si Wordsworth, si Coleridge, si Keats . . . a, si Plato iba an pagheling sa mga pararawit-dawit. Dai daa ki mga kamugtakan! Basaha man giraray si Plato.

An daing duwa-duwang napapagkauruyonan iyo na an rawit-dawit sarong madunong buda malâyab na pagpatos sa mahilyas na katotoohan buda pagmàte gamit an verso, bako prosa, siring man an  mga pig-aapod na tema, simbolismo, istruktura (meter), dangan tabyon (rhythm). Sisabayan man ini kan mga pig-aapod na rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, dangan metaphor. An mga rawit-dawit nagbabayabay kan mga kinabatiran dangan mga agi-agi kan banwa bako sana kan mga paghorop-horop kan pararawit-dawit. Sa paghorop-horop kan pararawit-dawit nahahaman an mga bagong pakasabot (meanings), mga bagong pagsasararo (combinations), buda mga bagong pagiribahan (relationships).

An pagkaiba kan rawit-dawit sa historya, sabi ni Aristotle, iyo na an historya nagroromdom sa mga pangyayari na gayod nasa impluensya kan mga kakundian o limitadong panânaw na dai malikayan sa tunay na buhay. Sa ibong na lado, mga pangyayari man sa tunay na buhay an kinaban kan rawit-dawit ugaring bako sana pagromdom an piggigibo. An rawit-dawit memorya o agi-agi na didakop kan paghorop-horop dangan pipatos sa mga taramon na sisaligsig kan isip, titomok sa puso, dangan ililogom sa hamis kan pagpadaba tanganing matawan kan mainit na hangos kan buhay. Arog sa historya, an rawit-dawit igwa man kan katoyohan na magbayabay ki katotoohan na nakukua bako sa mga pasikrap o tikwil kundi sa pagmaan o igot na pagpogol. Bako arog sa historya, an pagbayabay sa katotoohan gigibo sa mga haralipot alagad napagadalan na panaramon, lambang taramon. An rawit-dawit orog pa sa pisikal na naheheling o namamàtean an nahahaman. An kalag nasisilag. 

An sarong rawit-dawit puwedeng bumilog ki sarong kamugtakan na simple, bantay an lambang kibra kan kurit. Puwede man na labrado dangan may mga tagong gustong sabihon an ano man na nauunambitan. Ini depende sa katoyohan buda panaramon. An rawit-dawit baga sarong organisado, komplikado, dangan napagsarong pagladawan ki eksperyensya. Bako sana ini diskripsyon kan eksperyensya kundi iyo na ngani an eksperyensya. An eksperyensya dai puwedeng ikudal ki saro sanang panânaw. Sa eksperyensya igwang may nakakamatí, may nakakaheling. Bihira magkapareho an panânaw kan nakakamatí buda kan nakakaheling. Arog baga sa sarong basong may laog na tubig, puwedeng sabihon kan sarong nagheheling na an kabanga kaini may laog o an kabanga daing laog. Sa nakakamatí, puwedeng bolong sa  paha an magkawat sa saiyang payo. An duwang prisonero kun padungawon sa bintana kan saindang karsel puwedeng an saro maheling an langit, su saro pa an dugi. Dakul buda dakula an gustong sabihon kaini. Puwede ining pagmàte na minaporon sa gabos nang klase ki pagmàte o panânaw na minabugkos sa manlaen-laen na mga panânaw arog baga sa rawit-dawit ni Milton na Paradise Lost. 

An rawit-dawit nahahaman sa paggamit ki mga taramon tangani mahorma an tema buda istruktura. An panaramon minatao ki buhay sa eksperyensya tanganing mamatí, manamitan, maheling, madutdut, maparong, mapaghorop-horopan man kan nagbabasa o nagdadangog. Alagad an gayon, orag, buda dunong kan sarong rawit-dawit nasa mata kan isip, nasa talinga kan puso, nasa kamot kan imahinasyon. 

An pagbayabay kan gustong sabihon kan sarong pararawit-dawit minalataw sa saiyang panânaw. An panânaw na iyan madadakop kan parabasa sa pagmàte (tone) na gamit kan pararawit-dawit. Matanglay ipaliwanag kun ano an tone ta nasa pagbayabay ini kan pararawit-dawit; nasa mata kan saiyang makinawat na isip, sa talinga kan saiyang mapag-inirib na puso, sa kamot kan saiyang makinuti-kuting imahinasyon, sa tabyon kan saiyang malâyab na panaramon. Iba ini sa pigsasabing istilo. An istilo nasa payo, an pagmàte nasa daghan.

Manungod sa istilo dangan pagmàte, an prosa igwa man kaini. An prosa buda rawit-dawit may mga pagkaumagid siring man mga pagkakaiba. Enot, pareho sindang gamit sa literatura. Kun gagayodon ngani igwa sana ki manipis na linya na minasiblag sa prosa dangan rawit-dawit. Igwa ki mga nobela na kun igot na pagmasidan may mga nakasurat na an daging sa rawit-dawit (poetic prose). Igwa man ki mga rawit-dawit na nasa istilo kan prosa an pagkasurat (prose poetry).

Laen pa sa gamit kaini sa literatura, an prosa may dakulaon na serbi sa pan-aro-aldaw na komunikasyon. Igwa ini ki porma kan panaramon na may napapamugtakan sa manlaen-laen na klase ki pagsurat. Prosa an gamit sa pagsurat ki mga nobela, haralipot na mga istorya, buda iba pa. Prosa, saysay (essay) ngani, ining pigbabasa nindo ngonyan. 

Kun ipigsusurat an prosa may mga panundon sa gramatika, punctuation, capitalization, buda istruktura sa pigbibilog na panaramon (sentence) na igot na pigtotobod. (Kulibat, ginamit nara Malcolm Warren Mintz buda Jose del Rosario Britanico sa saindang Diksyonariong Bikol-English  an “orasyon,” gikan sa Kastilang “oracion,” para sa “sentence.”  Iba an pakasabot na ititao kan mga Albayano sa “orasyon.”) An pagbiriyo sa mga nabilog na panaramon nakakahaman ki parapo (paragraph). An rawit-dawit igwa ki mga linya dangan mga estropa (stanza). An kaipohan sa sarong bilog na panaramon tamang gramatika mantang sa linya kan rawit-dawit yaon an tabyon (rhythm). Sa nabilog na panaramon kaipohan an maging klaro; sa rawit-dawit naman an pagbayabay na napapatos sa pagmàte. Sa sarong bilog na panaramon, an pakasabot, pagsasararo, dangan pag-iribahan kan mga taramon susug sa dikta kan marhay buda tamang gramatika; sa rawit-dawit an mga taramon nagkakaigwa ki mga sadiring pakasabot, pagsasararo, buda pag-iribahan dahil sa paggamit ki simbolismo dangan metaphor. Sa bagay na ini madaling sabihon na an rawit-dawit sarong porma ki arte mantang an prosa kaipohan ngona midbidon bilang sarong fiction o nonfiction.

An pinakadakulang pagkaiba kan prosa sa rawit-dawit iyo an mga gamit ninda sa komunikasyon, bako sa kun ano an gustong ipaabot sa iba kundi kun pâno nabibilog an komunikasyon. Dai puwede an pigsasabing ambiguity buda vagueness sa prosa. Sa prosa igwa kan pig-aapod na “write what you mean and mean what you write.” An rawit-dawit igwa ki ibang katoyohan laen pa sa pagiging klaro sa pagbabayabay. Kaya minagamit ini ki mga istruktura na makakadagka sa parabasa. 

An prosa posibleng magkaigwa ki duwa o tolong pakasabot. Kun maglapwas diyan, may problema an parasurat. Sa rawit-dawit naman dakulaon an posibilidad na an mga parabasa makakua ki manlaen-laen na mga pakasabot. Simple an rason, may impluensya an mga kaaraman siring man eksperensya kan mga parabasa sa saindang pagsabot kan rawit-dawit.

Kun ano man an mabilog na pagsabot sa rawit-dawit, mina-uyon man giraray ini sa sabi ni Archibald Macleish, sa saiyang Ars Poetica, na: “A poem should not mean, but be”  (A. J. M. Smith, Seven Centuries of  Verse, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947: 592). 

An rawit-dawit bilog na masasabotan kun an tema, istruktura, tabyon, tanog, ladawan, an mga panaramon ingat dangan igot na napagmas’dan. Kun dai malikayan an pigsasabing analytical reading nanggad kaipohan sumunod an synthetical reading. Kun maglaog an creative reading, garing may problema an pararawit-dawit. Tibaad harayoon na sa gustong ibayabay kan pararawit-dawit an nakukuang pakasabot kan nagbabasa, makakadulag an katotoohan.

An pagsurat may duwang katoyohan: aramon o probaran an katotoohan. An rawit-dawit iyo man an toyo—na an taramon dangan pagmàte gamiton sa pagbayabay kan katotoohan; na an katotoohan magkintab pagkatapos matupsi gamit an mga kaipohan na paagi sa paghugid.

An katotoohan na saray sa sarong sadit na batiris daing pagkaiba sa katotoohan na yaon sa sarong dakulaon na gapo. Kun siring, an rawit-dawit umagid sa pilosopiya. Pareho sinda naghahanap sa katotoohan ugaring magkaiba an mga dalan na iagihan. An rawit-dawit bako man pantasya alagad puwedeng imundag kan pantasya siring sa puwedeng pagsupang kaini sa sarong eksperyensya. Boot sabihon, an rawit-dawit pighahanap an katotoohan sa paagi kan matibay na rason buda lohika dangan pipailomloman sa pagmàte  buda panânaw. Sabi kan iba, dai man ki lohika sa rawit-dawit. Iba an sakuyang pagtobod. Pâno magtrabaho an toltol na pag-isip kun daing lohika?

Harayo man gayod sa katoyohan kan rawit-dawit na bâgohon an itok kan kinaban. Kun ini gigibohon tibaad makompromiso an paghanap sa katotoohan. Iba an pantasya sa realidad.

Sa rawit-dawit boot sana tâwan ki mga simbag an mga paukod sa buhay o ipaheling sa nagbabasa o nagdadangog an kabilogan kan buhay, maging ano man iyan, tanganing ini saiyang matawan ki  pagranga o pagkondena. Sabi kan pilosopong Aleman na si Arthur Schopenhauer (Febrero 22, 1778 - Setyembre 21, 1860), “In art we put aside the struggle for individual preeminence and learn to see life as it is directly given us through timeless ideas.” An “timelessness” na iyan saro sa mga bagsik kan rawit-dawit. Iyan an mahiwason na pagkaiba kan rawit-dawit sa journalism.

An rawit-dawit sarong malâyab na paagi sa paghanap kan kinabatiran na may danay na pagkasabot sa kapalibotan na gayod kun gamit an ibang paagi an puwedeng lumuwas magabat saboton kun bako man may mga kakundian. Dakul ki mga argumento unong sa bagay na ini. Minabutwa an problema sa paggamit kan taramon, halimbawa an paggamit kan metaphor. An rawit-dawit minagayon, may buhay an tabyon sa paggamit ki metaphor. Gayod, an metaphor iyo an hinangos kan rawit-dawit. An metaphor bako man gamit sa aro-aldaw na buhay lalo na kun komunikasyon na gamit kan mga nasa gobyerno o kan mga nasa negosyo an paghororonan. An hermeneutics sarong pang nangangapodan ki pagsabot. Pâno, halimbawa, saboton an sarong lumang dokumento? Ano an mga gustong sabihon o mga pakasabot na kaipohan kuwaon, diyan sana nanggad sa pandok kan dokumento? Maraot kaya an pagsirip sa kalag kan istorya? May sînu? 

An rawit-dawit sensitibo sa paggamit kan taramon siring man sa mga puwedeng paggamitan kaini. Kun siring, puwedeng sabihon na an rawit-dawit nagbabayabay kan katotoohan sa saiyang kabilogan, bako sana sa kun ano, halimbawa, an pisikal na naheheling o namamatí. Saro pang problema na pighahampang kan rawit-dawit iyo an pagsayuma kan nagkakapirang sektor kan sosyedad na midbidon o gamiton ini sa rason na kun igwa ki argumento kaipohan magtangro ki ebidensya tanganing maresolbiran an dai pigkakauruyonan. An gobyerno sagkod ngani an akademiya pirmi naghahanap ki ebidensyang puwedeng tumapos sa mga dai pinagkakasurunduan. Dai kaiyan an rawit-dawit. Kaya gayod sabi ni Plato, daing kamugtakan ini. 

Sa ibong na lado, ano kayâ an kaipohan na ebidensya na puwedeng magprobar na may katotoohan sa sarong sadit na batiris siring sa katotoohan na makukua sa sarong dakulaon na gapo? Anong ebidensya an makapagpatotoo na igwa ki naturalesa an katotoohan? Sa pagsabot kan mga gustong sabihon kaipohan kaya an ebidensya? A, kaya palan an rawit-dawit garing alak na gibo sa ubas: minasiram sa paggurang–orog naghahaloy, orog nasasabotan.

May rawit-dawit pâno may mga kaipohan saboton na dai kaya agihon sa pilosopiya o sa lohika o probaran sa paagi ki ebidensya;  mga katotoohan na kun paliman-limanan naman madara ki dâlum buda babloy sa gayon siring man talibong kan buhay. May sadiring kinabatiran an rawit-dawit; an rawit-dawit tatao magranga sa kinabatiran kan iba.

Pasil an pagtarakod ki taramon. Madali an pagpisi ki panaramon. Dai man kaipohan ikûdus an pagpaburak kan imahinasyon. An aki matibay magpantasya, an gurang nangangaturogan maski burarat an mata. Arog kaya kaiyan an pagrawit-dawit? An sarong halipot na istorya puwedeng isurat sa laog ki sarong semana, an nobela puwedeng bumilang ki taon. O, an rawit-dawit kun poonan pagturaok kan sòlog tibaad dai pa minatangod an aldaw sa arimporo haman na . . . rawit-dawit na kaya iyan? Ano an lambang hapot kaipohan pirming may simbag? Igwa kaya ki hapot na iyo na nanggad an simbag?

Dakul ki mga tawong nagsusurat ta may nakukua sindang kaogmahan sa pagsurat. Igwa ki mga nagretiro na ngani sa trabaho alagad bibirikan pa an pagsurat. Hona gayod ninda an pagsurat sarong industriya para sa mga retirado o sa mga dai nang magkagirinibo sa buhay. Rawit-dawit na kaya an saindang puwedeng mahaman? O, sarong rawit-dawit an saindang buhay?

Bako pasil an paghaman ki rawit-dawit. Pâno baya an paglaog kan kinaban sa kahon kan posporo? Mahika? Nangangaipo ini ki bakong didiit na pagsabot buda konsentrasyon. Aritiit an nakukua sa mga enot na balô. Paminsan maboot an tsamba: nakakasubad ki mga memorableng linya. An pagsurat bako arog sa pagkanta. An mga tenor nagkakamurundag na kantor; an mga parasurat piglulukasan sa purgatoryo, nagdadanay sa bagyo—sa daing tonóng na pagtobod, pagingowa, pagkamuya, pagkamoot, pagranga sa pigaapod na “literary craftsmanship.” Bayae pa kun marotoyan.

Sabi kan Latinong parasurat na si Peter A. Rosado: “In poetry, syntaxes have little meaning, the order of the words is the order of your heart.” Alagad kuti-kuti dangan mareneparo sa paggamit ki taramon an mga pararawit-dawit. Pighahanapan ki pagmàte, ki hangos, ki buhay, ki awit, ki kalag, ki tamang espasyo, ki marhay na patama-tama sa dahon na pagsusuratan kan taramon bago gamiton.

Sa maatom na pagpili ki taramon, an pararawit-dawit nahahabol an panganoron na dai namamantsahan an puti, dai napipilpil an kurû. Garing aboyon kay Rosado an sinabi ni John Keats kaito pang mga panahon na dai pa ngani lamang gayod pigpapangaturo-gan si Peter kan saiyang mga magurang. Sabi ni Keats: “ . . . if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all” (A. J. M. Smith, Seven  Centuries of  Verse, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,1947: 632).

Gayod, an pagrawit-dawit pagbiklad ki katotoohan na inagi sa sarong paukod na pinatos ki kangalasan na ipiglaog sa bulsang gibosa pinong seda dangan ipigpapalid sa amihan.

Si Albert Einstein pararawit-dawit? Tibaad. Bako saiya an E=mc2? Iyo na gayod ini an pinakahalipot alagad pinakadi-pisil saboton na rawit-dawit. Siisay an makapagtaram kun siisay an pararawit-dawit? Tibaad tanganing maapod na saro, kaipohan ngona ibiklad an saiyang puso, ibayabay an laog kan saiyang hutok, aninawon an saiyang kalag. Pasil an pagtaram na an saro pararawit-dawit, pasil an pag-apod sa ano man na ikinurit bilang rawit-dawit.

Gayod an siisay man na nagsasagin-sagin na pararawit-dawit, arog sa nagsurat kan pigbabasa nindo ngonyan, kaipohan hanapan ki kinabatiran, aramon kun saen antos an pagkamoot sa paggamit ki panaramon, kan taramon. Orog sa gabos, ladopon an determinasyon sa paghanap ki katotoohan. Bako man gustong sabihon kaini na an mga pararawit-dawit mga piling aki kan Kaglalang. Kun an pagbaya-bay kan mga pagmàte dangan mga namamàtean namumundag sa puso, siisay an makapagtaram na pili sana an igwa kaiyan?

An sabi sa sarong parte kan historya kan rawit-dawit, duman sa Yoropa, ini nagtalubu sa kamot kan mga monarkiya buda mga burgis o mga elitista kan mga anoy na panahon.  Mala ta may mga ba-yadan sindang pararawit-dawit (court bard o minstrel) na dai nang ibang ginibo kundi omawon an mga nagkagirinibohan buda mga kamawotan kan saindang mga patron, bayae pa kun ano an katotoohan. Alagad, dakul man sa mga kasaraditan su sige man an giribo ki rawit-dawit. Ugaring, su saindang mga obra sainda sana ta dai ngani ki patron na puwedeng tomipon ki mga miron na maparakpak sa lambang pag-unambit sa pangaran kan patron. 

Gayod, daing pagkaiba sa jukebox su mga pararawit-dawit (court bard o minstrel) kan mga panahon. Dai bale ta saindang naisabwag an katotoohan na may gamit an rawit-dawit—depende sa pagsabot siring man katoyohan. Sa satuyang panahon, bako na jukebox an pararawit-dawit. Sainda su awit, an ranga sa pandangog kan talinga kan may talinga. 

Kan mga panahon, digdi sa ka-Bikolan, igwa man ki mga pararawit-dawit. An pinakamidbid iyo si Kadunung. (Si Kadunung bako jukebox.)  Su nangyari iyo na su saindang giniribo anas sa pag-awit (chant) buda pagtaram inagi, nagkulang sa pagsurat. Su mga nadangog kan mga Kastila, arog kay Fray Bernardino Melendreras, OFM, saindang isinurat sa taramon na Kastila. Saro kaini an bako tapos na epikong Ibalon. Hapot: Siisay su dai nakatapos si Melendreras o si Kadunung? Yaon man an Romansa Bikol, sarong magayon, detalyadong pagsaysay kan pagtuga kan Bulkan Mayon kan Febrero 1, 1814. Natada su pangaran ni Melendreras, nawara su pangaran kan Indio na nadangogan niya kan istorya.

Igwa ki mga panundon an pagrawit-dawit. Kun siring, an gustong midbidon bilang pararawit-dawit kaipohan may pagkaaram sa mga panundon na ini. An ano man baya na klase ki pagsurat pirmi igwang mga sadiring pangangaipo buda mga reglamento. An pag-otob kaini an saro sa mga enot na kaipohan pasiring sa pagiging pararawit-dawit.

Siisay an pararawit-dawit? May magayonon na simbag si Tadeusz Rosewics kan Poland sa saiyang Who is a Poet na ipigtradusir sa English nara Magnus Krynski buda Robert Maguire (http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/whopoet.html, Hulyo 9, 2010, 10:30 kan banggi). Dai ko na ini isa-Bikol ta tibaad mag-askad. Sabi ni Rosewics:

      a poet is one who writes verses

      and one who does not write verses

      a poet is one who throws off fetters

      and one who puts fetters on himself

      a poet is one who believes

      and one who cannot bring himself to believe

      a poet is one who has told lies

     and one who has been told lies

      one who has been inclined to fall

      and one who raises himself

     a poet is one who tries to leave

     and one who cannot leave

An Selebra katiriponan ki mga isinururat na sa sakuyang bulaos na pagtobod mga rawit-dawit. Nagkapirang klase ki pagrawit-dawit an ginamit ko digdi. Igwa ki blank verse, ballad, sonnet, prose poetry, couplet, imagery poems, free verse, narrative, romanticist, cinquian, haiku, buda tigsik. Sagkod sa kaya ko, an mga rawit-dawit digdi sakuyang pipatipay sa mga istrukturang nakaugalian nang sun’don. Igwa man ki mga eksperimento. Alagad sa tigsik bilog an sakuyang pagrespeto sa mga panundon kaini ta ini nasa proseso kan pagtalubu. Kaipohan magkaigwa ini ki mapagkasararoan na sadiring mga panundon.

Selebra an titulong ginamit ko sa libro dahil ini sarong pag-rokyaw, pagranga ngani sa gayon, orag, dunong kan sadiring taramon—Albay-Bikol. Ipigrorokyaw man an yagomyom kan mga eksperyensang inaragihan, an birtud sa mga katotoohan na nagkaturuparan, an dunong na ipigsasabwag kan kintab kan mga bitoon. Yaon man an pagranga sa mga pagmàte dangan mga namamàtean: an ogma, an mundu, an pungaw, an mawot, an pawot, an pagkamoot, an uyam, an siram, an lindok, an lanit, an purga. 

Digdi sa Selebra isinabay ko an mga tradusyon kan mga piling rawit-dawit na tibaad ngani diiton sana an nakakaaram. Mga rawit-dawit na may darang pangkagab’san na mga katotoohan. Anion an Poetry ni Marianne Moore, Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind ni Carl Sandburg, Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Lupa ni Andres Bonifacio, dangan an Romansa Bikol ni Fray Bernardino Melendreras, OFM. Ining Romansa Bikol, sa sakuyang paghona, kaipohan pag-interesan kan mga nagmamakolog sa literaturang Bikolnon. An dai naireport kan Phivolcs, yaon sa rawit-dawit na iyan.  Sakuya man na ipigsaysay an istorya ni Don Pedro Estevan, an taga-Tabako na pigkatakotan kan mga piratang Moro kan panahon kan mga Kastila. Si Don Pedro Estevan istoryang Bikolnan na liningawan kan panahon. Iyo man si Comisario Juan. Binalikan ko si Bantung pagkatapos na magadan niya an mampak na si Rabot. Iyo man sara Baltog dangan Sural. Dakul pang iba. An Selebra pagrokyaw sa abot duwang dekada na pagtipon kan mga nakalagdang rawit-dawit.

Ini an Selebra kasabay an mga isinurat na nalagda na man sa kun saen—an iba sa libro su iba sa kun anong magasin. Dakul man digdi ki binarasa ko na sa kun saen na mga okasyon kan mga pararawit-dawit na Bikolnon. 

An Selebra mga awit ki pagkamoot sa mga bagay na Bikolnon. Mga awit na dai napapamugtak sa nag-aaldab na tikab. Mga awit na naghahanap ki mga ngabil tanganing makalâyab sa walong paros dangan ipalid sa mga baybayon buda mga kabobol’dan. Sa pakipagsumaro sa mga kinabatiran kan onas dangan taob na naghahadok sa mga baybayon; sa pag-inirib kan paghoron kan mga bolod buda mga panganoron may gayon, ogma, dangan dunong na isasaray sa daghan.

                                                         Raffi Banzuela

                                                         Agosto 1, 2010

                                                         Kamalig, Albay

(Introduction to the book SELEBRA, a collection of rawit-dawit by Raffi Banzuela)